The 1.5 tons of cocaine seized by Colombian police on Monday in Cartagena was allegedly intended for the notorious Mexican drug cartel, "Los Zetas", reported local media on Tuesday.
"The initial investigation reveals that the cargo belonged to Los Urabeños and was being shipped to Los Zetas," said Colombia's Police Director General Jose Roberto Leon Riano.
The drugs were supposedly going to be shipped to Puerto Cortes in Honduras before ending up in Mexico. The 1.5 tons were found in a truck in an undisclosed Cartagena maritime terminal. Upon opening the truck, narcotics agents reportedly discovered 60 rectangular packages marked with the 'Fox Sports' logo.
The estimated value of the drug seizure is $5 million.
Riano told loca media that this latest drug bust brings the "total amount of cocaine seized in 2012 to 185 tons, the largest amount seized in the past five years."
Feds: 6 tons of marijuana
seized at New Mexico border
Associated PressAssociated Press
Posted: 01/25/2013 03:20:13 PM MST
Click
photo to enlarge
(Courtesy U.S. Border
Patrol)
LORDSBURG, N.M. (AP) - Authorities
say border patrol agents in New Mexico have seized six tons of marijuana in one
of the agency's largest drug bust ever.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said Friday that agents at the
Lordsburg, N.M. station made the discovery this week after stopping four
vehicles traveling in a caravan. Agents say the four vehicles were spotted
traveling in tandem on NM County Road 1.
Authorities say agents found in the vehicle around 13,000 pounds of
marijuana, with a street value of about $10.9 million.
Homeland Security Investigations arrested 39-year old Leonardo Ortiz Chavez
and 29-year old Samuel Garcia Miranda, both Mexican nationals, in connection
with the seizure.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi troops shot dead at least four people during clashes with Sunni Muslim protesters in Falluja on Friday in escalating unrest against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
A Reuters witness said troops initially fired in the air to disperse crowds, but then he saw some soldiers fire towards protesters who had approached their military vehicles and set one of them on fire.
Thousands of Sunnis have taken to the streets to protest against mistreatment of their minority sect since late December, increasing worries that Iraq could slide back into widespread sectarian confrontation.
Friday's violence complicates Maliki's attempts to end the protests, where demands range from amendment of terrorism laws that many Sunnis feel single them out to more radical calls for the Shi'ite leader to step down.
After thousands gathered for Friday prayers in Falluja, a mostly Sunni city 50 km (30 miles) north of the capital, clashes broke out when troops arrested three protesters and others tried to block a major highway, officials said.
"A final count shows we have six people killed and 52 wounded," a hospital source told Reuters. He said at least four had died from gunshot wounds, but it was not clear how the other two people had died.
A local television channel showed demonstrators approaching the army vehicles and throwing stones and water bottles while troops tried to keep them away by firing in the air. But images also showed one soldier aiming his rifle at demonstrators.
"I was trying to see the burned vehicle when the army started to drive the demonstrators away. When that did not work the soldiers opened fire at the people," said Aziz Nazal, a cameraman, who was wounded in his hand.
A year after the last American troops left Iraq, sectarian tensions are still raw in Iraq, where many lived through Shi'ite-against-Sunni bloodletting that killed tens of thousands a few years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Since the fall of the Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein a decade ago, many Iraqi Sunnis feel they have been sidelined by the Shi'ite leadership and believe Maliki is amassing power at their community's expense.
Janet Rennspies who was missing and found dead (her husbands death ruled homicide)
Web Producer: Rikki Mitchell
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - The Pima County Medical Examiner's office has determined that the husband of a missing Oro Valley woman was murdered.
Lt. Kara Riley with the Oro Valley Police Department tells KGUN9 that officers found Norman Rennspies at a residence in the 12,000 block of North Yellow Bird Road with a gun shot wound in the head.
He was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died.
His wife Janet Rennspies reported that her Norman had shot himself.
During the investigation of his death, his wife was reported missing by family members, but later was found dead on Mt. Lemmon. The Medical Examiner's determined her death was a suicide.
Two Colombian soldiers have been arrested after they were caught transporting half a ton of cocaine, authorities said Thursday.
The lieutenant and his subordinate were caught with 410 kilograms of the illicit drug at the check point between Sonso to Buga, both located in the southwestern Valle del Cauca department.
According to the armed forces, the two members of the military were off duty at the time of their arrest.
Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon and Armed Forces Commander General Alejandro Navas announced an investigation to establish whether a "drug trafficking cartel" is active within the armed forces.
Colombia's National Police seized a shipment of close to four tons of cocaine that allegedly belonged to the neo-paramilitary group, "Los Urabeños" and was intended for the notorious Mexican cartel, "Los Zetas." According to authorities, the seizure dealt a strong blow to the neo-paramilitary group's financial structure.
"It is a forceful blow to Los Urabeños, who owned the 3,826 kilograms (8,434 pounds) of cocaine...[that] carried a value of $100 million, and was marked with their logo", said the country's director of police, General Jose Roberto Leon Riaño. The shipment was allegedly found in a shipping container in a Cartagena port, "camouflaged" in polypropylene bags.
Taking advantage of a packaging method known as 'flexitank,' the "offenders based contaminated bags with cocaine...in...rectangular packages wrapped in plastic," said the police director.Each flexitank was then placed on a scanner and the results showed asymmetrical figures that did not correspond to a liquid load.
"The drugs were gathered in the center of the country, the collection was [done in the region of] Uraba and then was sent to different ports for distribution...In this case, was the port of Veracruz, Mexico bound [for the] Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas," said Leon Riaño.
It has been reported that Los Urabeños have been working with Los Zetas for some time. In December of 2012, police confiscated two shipments that were intended for the Mexican cartel. More: Colombia police seize 2nd 'Zetas coocaine stash' in week In less than a month, Colombian authorities have seized more than six tons of cocaine that at one point belonged to Los Urabeños.
Model Tries to Smuggle Cocaine Inside Fake Breast and Butt Implants
Rome's airport police have caught a busty model trying to smuggle 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of cocaine inside her fake breast and buttocks' implants.
The 33-year-old model was arriving from Sao Paulo wearing tight clothes when the police stopped her from questioning at the immigration control. Police officers found the fake implants stuffed with cocaine during the strip search that followed:
She actually became quite aggressive and was taken away for more detailed questioning by two female officers and that's when the drugs were found hidden in the plastic breast and buttock implants. The extremely pure cocaine crystals were found moulded into the implants that she was wearing.
I wonder if traffickers would ever use real implants. Those would be impossible to detect, but I don't want to imagine what would happen if they break. [Daily Mail and AsiaOne] Image by Benko Zsolt/Shutterstock
Rome's airport police have caught a busty model trying to smuggle 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of cocaine inside her fake breast and buttocks' implants.